Today I tell you some data about the blog, this inseparable travel partner I’ve had. My relation with him, you can imagine: love, hate. I’ve liked writing it, stop to think about what I’ve seen, what was different from the previous country and to the next. It’s been more enriching stopping to organize the ideas and the feelings.

At the same time I had proposed myself to write two posts a week and that’s been very time consuming, and sometimes I would have preferred to do something else, but I’ve been able to do it 2,3 post a week is the average of the trip.

Without further delay here you have the numbers:

111 published posts.

95.492 words written. The other day I told you I had check how many words could approximately have a novel, and it’s around 100.000. None of my language teachers would have ever bet on me to write so much.

95.492 words translated. If any one was wondering, yes, I did translate it personally. And doing a bilingual blog is something I’ve regretted many times…

Between 1 and 1.5 hours is what it has taken me to translate each post.

Total of 8 hours to do each post.

40 hours dedicated to create and maintain the blog itself

928 hours of work to complete what you see here now. Wait! Still pending the time to do the videos but I’ll tell you about it in the videos section.

1279 pictures published

15.280 pictures taken, this number is after the review done every day to remove the useless ones, around a 25%.

385 gigabytes used to store the pictures and the videos.

I’ve been in Dublin doing a documentary photography training, my final work has not been as I expected, but I’ve learn a lot. Here you have some pictures about it, as there are not many pictures relevant to today’s topic.

After taking panoramic pictures on the trip it has not been easy to come back to the normal format.

Data about the videos:

24 videos done.

Total of 96 minutes.

Each minute of video has taken me 3 hours. The editing work of videos is laborious by itself and my computer is not powerful enough for it so it’s been even slower.

2914 clips of videos taken. Those little images that have become the edited videos later.

Statistics about the videos:

18.236 seen videos. This number surprises me as it keeps growing.

The videos are in Vimeo (The place with best quality), You Tube (where I’ve been taken out the sound of some due to copyright) and Daily Motion (to be in the three big ones). There are some videos in other specific sites also.

The most liked videos are:

– “Theth. The hidden Albania” with 4587. This shows something curious, the unity of the Armenian community, they have been sending the link from blog to blog.

– “Greek Water“. This is the kayak video I did when I paddled in Greece, it has 1711 views as it’s in the Kayak Session magazine web page, one of the best white water magazines now a days.

One I recorded with my sister in Greece about the Delphi Oracle. I was doing as I was going to the Oracle to ask about my trip. The future teller, that in this case was called oracle straight forward, was my sister. She had a very passive attitude against me telling me very loose things about my questions about the trip. I wanted to know if I’d arrive China but she was not answering. It was a bit of a mess and we never went to the Delphos oracle so had to be dismissed

In China I started to record a video called “Chinese Food”, it consisted on me eating all the Chinese food for a month telling the camera what it was, but during some days of a cold I starting feeling the video didn’t make sense and I gave up. Now I think it could have been a very good video. For other trip to China.

The countries with no video are: Turkey, Armenia, Jordan, Uzbekistan and Kazajstan. I wanted to make a video per country but after the mediocre videos of Georgia I decided to do only videos of the things that motivated me totally. Maybe that’s why Italy, Montenegro and China have two videos.

The videos that I’ve liked the most are “Not every day”, “Acqua Alta”, “Darvaza Gas Crater”, “Zadar sound and light” and “Beijing”, however all have been fun to record.

Here are the statistics of the visits to the blog:

20.627 visits.

121 countries have visited my blog. AWESOME. No mater how long you’ve work with internet, there are things that are always surprising.

It started with around 700 visits a month and now I have around 2.700.

The numbers are great, but to whom I’d really would have loved to show the videos and tell the trip was my mother. She knew the plan and the itinerary, and with how much she liked travelling, she would have enjoyed it infinitelly. I would have loved to travel with her in the most interesting countries… Things would have been more interesting. I know I would have done an effor to go to more special and remote places, to talk with more people, to try more foods, to… everything. All would have been more intense.

But as this has not been possibe I’ve told you everything. This is life, you carry the bad things on your back and grab the good things as strong as you can, as living this trip. In other way, bu she´s been travelling with me during the trip.

One more data. 10000000000000000000000000 orthographic mistakes. Thousands apologies. There are things I do well and others I don’t, the orthography, obviously falls in the second bucket. Here my language teachers would say that little has changed.

I’ve done all possible to put the right data, but there may be things that are not totally fine. It would be impossible to continue the trip writing in a “quality” level as in a printed format. This is nature of the blog. Sorry for the mistakes.

I hope this blog has helped you to travel from home, to see places you didn’t know and have made you feel like moving away from the sofa.

Finally, I see the total number of kilometres of the trip. I thought that they would be less than 40.000 but after reviewing some of them this is the final number. The kilometres are quite exact as I’ve been taking notes and numbers during the trip, now, I’ve estimated a short number of journeys have been estimated but less than 5%.

The post also has some curious statistics about places in which I’ve been sleeping

Here you have the first graphic with the kilometres per country:

Armenia and Kazajstan, I was telling you that I don’t consider them as visited in fact, appears as the ones with less kilometers.

Here in detail the kilometres per country:

Country

Kilómeters

Country

Kilómeters

Country

Kilómeters

China

7532

Greece

1819

Jordan

874

Turkey

5347

Turkmenistan

1746

Iraq

810

Iran

5212

Montenegro

1682

Slovenia

630

Uzbekistan

3387

Croatia

1620

BiH

552

Kyrgyzstan

1962

Italy

1590

Armenia

536

Syria

1920

France

1324

Spain

474

Albania

1903

Georgia

939

Kazakhstan

460

With the number of kilometres per country, they countries are nearly organized by country size.

During the post, to make it easy, as I’ve done during the blog, each time I’ve moved I’ve called it generically “transport”.

In the 42.319 kilometres, I don’t count the transports in the city (metro, tram, taxi…) neither the daily hours I’ve spent walking. This total can be considered inter urban distance travelled. I’ve just counted the walking journeys that have been needed to move from a place to another, which have not been too much.

I love train station.

The most curios transports have been:

The day that after crossing the border between Turkey and Georgia I hitchhiked with a nipo-suiss couple and a bus full of crazy Iranians got us. I enjoyed so much I did a video about it.

Old red Mercedes taxi in Albania that as soon as we were in offered us a bottle of mineral water refilled with raki (strong homemade alcohol) that he had handy on the door, why?

The most unpleasant journey was in China, going from Turpan to Lanzhou. The hotel played us not issuing the train tickets and we were all night sitting in the most uncomfortable sit ever built.

The most memorable trip on boat that has been the one in the Koman Lake in Albania where I was not very sure where I was going, it was pouring rain and when I arrived to the other side of the lake I had to stay, as there was no ferry back. A huge feeling of being lost and a huge feeling of “I don’t mind”.

One of the nicest journeys was the way to Mestia in the high Svanety north of Georgia. The journey was through an impressive canyon until the villages with watch towers started to pop up. I loved it even it was in one of the busiest minuses ever and after many hours.

On the kayak, I’ve done 160 kilometres in five countries: Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Turkey and Iran. From all I keep fantastic memories, maybe the most different was the one in Iran, a remote place. A kind of place I wanted to go when I was planning the trip three years ago but that I couldn’t really imagine how it would be.

Awesome the hitchhike I did to get to the Chinese border in Kyrgyzstan where I got for the first time in my life into a trailer.

A graphic with the number of times I´ve taken each transport.

I would have liked travelling more by train but in many places they don’t exist or they are too slow.

In addition, a list with the numbers.

Transport type

Kilometers

Transport type

Kilometers

Transport type

Kilometers

Bus

57

4×4

8

Private Car

5

Shared Taxi

42

Rented car

6

Hitchhiking

5

Mini Bus

35

Boat

6

On foot

5

Taxi

26

Kayak

6

Motorcicle

1

Train

22

The most used types have been:

Bus with 57 transports

Shared taxi with 42, an interesting way of moving that doesn’t exist in what we call the civilized world. You go to a parking and a taxi is filled up with other people that share the same destination. It has nearly all the advantages of gong in a car and nearly none of the inconvenience. The price is a bit more than a bus, but takes shorter to arrive and it’s a LOT cheaper than bringing your own car. And you don’t have to drive! We should institute it.

35 minibuses have terrorized me, mainly in the Caucasus area. Is the transportation system I’ve liked the less. Filled up with people, you see nearly nothing through the windows. Also it’s dangerous for the extra weight and the speed they put on those vans reforested with seats. However, cheap and fast is.

And the last graphic with the kilometers per type of transport.

The bus wins but with not that many trains it get´s into second possition.

Tipo de transporte

Kilómetros

Tipo de transporte

Kilómetros

Tipo de transporte

Kilómetros

Bus

14715

4×4

2792

Autostop

204

Train

7971

Taxi

2749

Kayak

160

Shared Taxi

5424

Private car

1003

Scooter

88

Rented car

3709

Boat

296

On foot

40

Mini Bus

3160

The three longest transports:

1480 kilometres in a bus crossing the Taklamakan desert. Here I added another two more hours to arrive to Turpan making it a 25 hours trip.

1378 kilometres with the rented car with Silvia and Aitor when they came to visit me and to paddle around there.

1191 kilometres of the last transport on train from Xian to Beijing

On the 3709 kilometres done in rented cars I haven’t have a fine. A policeman forbid me one in Jordan and my friend Aitor was forbidden one in Montenegro using the technique of asking, why? So, where do I pay? And then what I do? How do I go to the place to pay?

I haven’t taken metrics on the hours on the transports but now I’d like to have it. As estimation, I can set the average speed to something between 70 and 85 kilometres per hour having a total of 500 to 600 hours.

If you see one of this, you have to jump into it for a picture!

Cleaning the road to Theth in Albania after the winter.

We move now to the numbers related to accommodation. Here are the numbers I’ve found more interesting:

129 is the number of different places in which I’ve slept.

16 nights sleeping on trains or buses, some more comfortable than others. I’ve tried to avoid travelling by night as you don’t see how the landscape changes.

145 is the total number of places I’ve sleep in adding both. That’s why it’s not strange that when I arrived home and I saw my be, I didn’t even got flustered, it was simply another bed to sleep in. Two days later I realized that it was my bed and I was supposed to have missed it.

2.28 stay per place, going according with my intention of moving every two days to avoid packing and un-packing.

2.03 if we take into account the nights travelling.

There are several places in which I’ve had to change accommodation during my stay. Tashkent was the worst as I had no reservation in advance (as I nearly never do) so I had to go to a 50 Euro hotel, then to a 35, then to a 20 and then to a 10 Euro as I wanted.

I’ve shared room 83 times, the preferred option as it’s cheaper, however a room for yourself is a much enjoyed thing for the peace and the space.

Ushguli in the hight Svaneti. Incredibly arriving, incredibly seing it and incredible breathing it. That’s why it is UNESCO heritage.

To finish the post here is the list of the 41 UNESCO heritage places I’ve visited:

Albania: Butrint, historical centre of Berat and Gjirokastra.

Bosnia and Herzegobina: Old Bridge Area of the Old City of Mostar.

China: The Great Wall, Mogao Caves, Temple of Heaven and Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Croatia: Old City of Dubrovnik, Historic Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian, Plitvice Lakes National Park and Stari Grad Plain.

France: Bordeaux Port de la Lune.

Georgia: Upper Svaneti.

Greece: The Acropolis, Meteora and the Paleochristian and Byzantine Monuments of Thessalonika.

Iran: PersepolisE, Esfahan and Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex.

Italy: Venice and its Lagoon, Pisa, Vatican City and Historic center Rome.

Syria: Ancient City of Damascus, Site of Palmyra, Ancient City of Bosra, Ancient City of Aleppo and Qal’at Salah El-Din.

Turkey: Historic Areas of Istanbul.

Uzbekistan: Itchan Kala, Historic Centre of Bukhara and Samarkand.

Montenegro: Natural and Culturo-Historic Region of Kotor and Durmitor National Park.

Jordan: Petra.

Turkmenistan: Ancient Merv and Kunya-Urgench.

Spain if we want to count it and to make some marketing of my hometown: Burgos Cathedral.

As soon as I have some time, I’ll prepare some data about the web to tell you. A novel has around 100.000 words. How many have I written? How many pictures? How many minutes of video produced?

I’ve been surprised by some of the numbers, but until next week I don’t tell you.

Mi friends are a bunch of bast.. pricks!, they have developed a theory to tease me. From them, I haven’t done the trip, on the contrary I’ve filled up a blog stick head to the computer screen with internet and Photoshop. The most stunning thing of this theory is that two independent group of friends have come up with it, hahahahha. Fortunately they don’t keep gong with it.

What I tell you today are some numbers I’ve been collecting during the trip. I’ve organized it in smaller groups so it’s easier to follow:

-22 in Moscow when stepped down the plane stairs to transfer to Spain. The lowest temperature I’ve got during the trip has been -12 in Kyrgyzstan.

1 Euro. The cheapest meals I’ve had.

70 Euros. The most… yes… I was leaving Venice next day, I was happy for having recorded “Acqua Alta” video, maybe my best video, and I wanted to leave the city in a special way.

3 Euro, the cheapest I’ve paid to Sleep. It was a horrendous place in Albania. LINK

1, only one type of plug. Amazing. Thanks good I decided not to bring one of those huge multi-plug things. Every time I was moving into a new country I was searching for plugs in the borders to se if I had to buy the adapter, when I’d see the two rounded pins I had a bit of a happy moment.

2 unexpected countries. Iraq, that I decided to go to the north with my friend Matt LINKLINK and Kazakhstan that I had to go through to go from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan as their border was closed.

25 the total number of countries I’ve been in during 2010 as I travelled to Ireland and England before the trip and Portugal after the trip to kayak for a few days. I doubt that any other time in my live I’ll be in so many countries in a single year.

2 countries that I’ve gone through very fast so I have to come back to finish seing them, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

19 border closed until coming back to Spain. One of the weirdest ones was Armenia with Iran, specially until I met “Cerda” and his smile changed my crappy day. I think it’s One of the stories that came up better in the blog, here you have the link if you want. LINK

9 countries with a majority of Muslims.

9 countries with a majority of Christians.

5 Countries in which I’ve kayak.

11 different rivers in which I’ve kayak

22 nationalities of people met but that they were not in the list: Lithuania, Belgium, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Check republic, Poland, England, Finland, Korea, Israel, Angola, Taiwan( if you consider it a country, Tajikistan, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, USA, Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Brazil.

13 Countries that I’ve gone by that has anti personal mines. I’ve been two hours in internet trying to make this list right but it’s difficult, so sorry if there are mistakes: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan and China.

Some numbers about the passport:

12 visas in the passport.

1 visa gotten before leaving Spain.

1, only one free page in the passport.

1 glue I had to buy to fix the passport cover to the pages. LINK

5 times I had to repeat the process as it was getting loose with the use.

-22 in Moscow when stepped down the plane stairs to transfer to Spain. The lowest temperature I’ve got during the trip has been -12 in Kyrgyzstan.

1 Euro. The cheapest meals I’ve had.

70 Euros. The most… yes… I was leaving Venice next day, I was happy for having recorded “Acqua Alta” video, maybe my best video (click here to see), and I wanted to leave the city in a special way.

3 Euro, the cheapest I’ve paid to Sleep. It was a horrendous place in Albania.

1, only one type of plug. Amazing. Thanks good I decided not to bring one of those huge multi-plug things. Every time I was moving into a new country I was searching for plugs in the borders to se if I had to buy the adapter, when I’d see the two rounded pins I had a bit of a happy moment.

2 unexpected countries. Iraq, that I decided to go to the north with my friend Matt LINKLINK and Kazakhstan that I had to go through to go from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan as their border was closed.

25 the total number of countries I’ve been in during 2010 as I travelled to Ireland and England before the trip and Portugal after the trip to kayak for a few days. I doubt that any other time in my live I’ll be in so many countries in a single year.

2 countries that I’ve gone through very fast so I have to come back to finish seing them, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

19 border closed until coming back to Spain. One of the weirdest ones was Armenia with Iran, specially until I met “Cerda” and his smile changed my crappy day. I think it’s One of the stories that came up better in the blog, here you have the link if you want.

9 countries with a majority of Muslims.

9 countries with a majority of Christians.

5 Countries in which I’ve kayak.

11 different rivers in which I’ve kayak

22 nationalities of people met but that they were not in the list: Lithuania, Belgium, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Check republic, Poland, England, Finland, Korea, Israel, Angola, Taiwan( if you consider it a country, Tajikistan, Russia, Ukraine, Canada, USA, Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Brazil.

13 Countries that I’ve gone by that has anti personal mines. I’ve been two hours in internet trying to make this list right but it’s difficult, so sorry if there are mistakes: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Georgia, Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan and China.

Some numbers about the passport:

12 visas in the passport.

1 visa gotten before leaving Spain.

1, only one free page in the passport.

1 glue I had to buy to fix the passport cover to the pages.

5 times I had to repeat the process as it was getting loose with the use.

4 consulates have given me visas with my glued passport.

7 borders crossed with the passport glued.

Backpack in Albania, when it had a month of travelling.

Backpack today. Where is that bright blue colour?

Some unclassified numbers:

4 razors.

1 traffic fine that I got when travelling from Madrid to Burgos. I was recording the first video and to avoid background noise I was driving at 80 kilometres per hour. The police fined me for a problem with a light but I’d say they just wanted to check out why anyone could drive so slow for such a long time.

100 Euro for the fine.

42, this sounds incredibly high but 42 beers I tried during the trip.

1 beer keeps being my favourite, the Madrilian Mahou, however the new beers tasted in strange bars, terraces and accompanied by strangers are worthy to remember.

3 blisters. One in the hand for kayaking in Iran with quite warm water. Two in the little finger of my finger in Jordan.

1 false student card. I made it so fast the last day that I even put my born year wrong.

164 Euros saved with it. There are a lot of places in which I haven’t used it as I’ve considered they were asking for a logical price plus it was needed.

164 Euros transferred to ONGs that work in countries I’ve travelled.

1 place I didn’t dare to bring it out. The Vatican museum had a specific queue for it and didn’t wanted to risk so I pay the 15 Euro the ticket costs.

10 hat’s I’ve bought on the way. I guess I have kind of a collection of hats of places I go to.

1 traffic light smashed down. I was driving a rented Smart in Croatia. I had had breakfast outside writing something for the blog. I was getting out of the hostel with 200 beds in where I was the only person sleeping. I was relaxed, comfortable, probably too relaxed. I was looking to the right to be sure no cars were coming. I look to the left where I was turning and… wow, what is this traffic light doing 1.5 meter from my car? Break and PAM!!! I go backwards in the middle of the four line road, check the car is fine and run away from where the thing has happened.

My traffic light in the middle. Yes I stopped to get a picture.

Uncountable:

Many invitations to alcohol, even in Iran where it’s illegal. I started the list but it was growing too much.

Many waking up early to get pictures with no people.

Many nights going late to bed to finish posts and videos. But I’ll tell you about the blog numbers specifically in other post.

Many new friends in Facebook, even some real ones.

I’m actually not a big fan of face book, but it helps to communicate when you are away.

Some other mixed numbers to finish:

2 pairs of glasses lost, ones for the sun and others to see. I had spare seeing glasses so it was not traumatic.

1 laptop charger forgotten in a hotel room in west China. Whit this I finish the list of lost or forgotten things.

1 over used backpack, my day backpack. The backpack can be considered a symbol of modernization, there are a lot of countries in which you only see backpacks to foreigners.

2 hotel keys that I didn’t return, one in Albania an one in China.

1 diarrheia I would have prefer not to have when visiting the Aral sea in Uzbekistan. Didn’t stop me from doing anything but wasn’t pleasant.

1 pair of shoes that I used up, the sole was nearly gone. Luckily I could replace them for the same pair when my friend Silvia came to visit me to Kyrgyzstan.

4 credit cards, one of each just in case MasterCard, Maestro, Visa and American Express that I haven’t used.

I think this is enough numbers for the day, I have two more posts with numbers, one about transport, final number of kilometres and related stuff and the last one about the blog and how many people have read this?

During all the trip I thought his would be a sweet and sour moment, like the food. But I’m happy. Happy for having done it, happy for having left home that day with the backpack and for having arrived to China, to Xian and Beijing ten months later, which is what I wanted.

I’m happy for having been able to fulfil my objective, the bitterness of the trip finishing is very small, in one or another way all finishes, and this is a happy ending, like in the horrible Disney movies. All has gone fine, I’ve arrived and I smile. Even though a part of me wants “not to be happy”, doesn’t want the trip to finish, wants to keep being nomad.

As I knew this would be publish later I’m writing this on the plane. I couldn’t writ this a month later.

In the morning I record the last images of the Beijing video so I haven’t had time to have breakfast so I’ve bought something in a smoky stall that threw a good smell while I was recording. It appears in the minute 1;48. It’s good, like a sandwich with meat and soya seeds that fall in every bite. I was hoping to fry by the terminal they built for the Olympics but I’m not lucky.

I love airports, searching for my fight reading quickly the screen and finding it surrounded by other attractive names, seeing people with their bags searching their destinations. I’m sensitive, if I see somebody sad and overwhelmed sad I feel pity and if I see someone happy I euphoric.

But if I like airports , I like planes even more. For me, a plane is a “non temporal window” in which there’s nothing you can do. Before a trip I always have thousand things to do and the plane is a place to relax in which I hardly ever do anything useful. Normally I fall asleep before taking off, when the big airplane moves slowly and clumsy to the runaway. By the time I’m awake, there are times I’ve been hours on the air.

If I’d flight direct I’d had flown by most of my route, of my silk road. Even it’s not the exact terrain I’ve gone by, I look down, I’m crossing Eurasia in the opposite way, gaining the seven hours I had lost the clock. I think in all the things I’ve done, in all the people I’ve talk to, on the times that I’ve sweat and silver, en all the things that have happened to me… I smile

AVION

Coming back would be harder if my time would have finished, something would have happened back home or money had finished. It would have been even harder if I had had to come back after four months of travelling, that would have been horrible! The reason of coming back is strong and appealing. I’ve got a civil servant job organizing the town hall bill in my hometown… OK, I’m joking… The reason is better, o

it’s a live reason full of hope. In a few days I’m going to(I was going to) become an uncle. The rest of China can wait, I can’t miss this.

During all the trip I thought his would be a sweet and sour moment, like the food. But I’m happy. Happy for having done it, happy for having left home that day with the backpack and for having arrived to China, to Xian and Beijing ten months later, which is what I wanted.

I’m happy for having been able to fulfil my objective, the bitterness of the trip finishing is very small, in one or another way all finishes, and this is a happy ending, like in the horrible Disney movies. All has gone fine, I’ve arrived and I smile. Even though a part of me wants “not to be happy”, doesn’t want the trip to finish, wants to keep being nomad.

As I knew this would be publish later I’m writing this on the plane. I couldn’t writ this a month later.

In the morning I record the last images of the Beijing video so I haven’t had time to have breakfast so I’ve bought something in a smoky stall that threw a good smell while I was recording. It appears in the minute 1;48. It’s good, like a sandwich with meat and soya seeds that fall in every bite. I was hoping to fry by the terminal they built for the Olympics but I’m not lucky.

I love airports, searching for my fight reading quickly the screen and finding it surrounded by other attractive names, seeing people with their bags searching their destinations. I’m sensitive, if I see somebody sad and overwhelmed sad I feel pity and if I see someone happy I euphoric.

But if I like airports , I like planes even more. For me, a plane is a “non temporal window” in which there’s nothing you can do. Before a trip I always have thousand things to do and the plane is a place to relax in which I hardly ever do anything useful. Normally I fall asleep before taking off, when the big airplane moves slowly and clumsy to the runaway. By the time I’m awake, there are times I’ve been hours on the air.

If I’d flight direct I’d had flown by most of my route, of my silk road. Even it’s not the exact terrain I’ve gone by, I look down, I’m crossing Eurasia in the opposite way, gaining the seven hours I had lost the clock. I think in all the things I’ve done, in all the people I’ve talk to, on the times that I’ve sweat and silver, en all the things that have happened to me… I smile

AVION

Coming back would be harder if my time would have finished, something would have happened back home or money had finished. It would have been even harder if I had had to come back after four months of travelling, that would have been horrible! The reason of coming back is strong and appealing. I’ve got a civil servant job organizing the town hall bill in my hometown… OK, I’m joking… The reason is better, o

it’s a live reason full of hope. In a few days I’m going to(I was going to) become an uncle. The rest of China can wait, I can’t miss this.

My vegetative plane state get’s altered by my accumulated memories during the trip. The images get amounted in my brain, moreover I’m hearing Radiohead and Thom Yorke’s voice messes my thoughts, the music puts them back in order, I don’t know how this will en up. Is like doing the trip in fast speed. One of my favourites sons sounds; “Idioteque”.

I was sure that I wouldn’t put a plane picture, how unmening. Once I saw the work of a photographer that was a retired Iberia pilot. He had carried his camera during his service years as pilot. Those were truly spectacular pictures.

We make a stop in Moscow. The pilot announces that it’s -22 degrees. They put us the stairs instead of the finger and I have my coat in the luggage for not carrying it. I had always wanted to come to Moscow, but I have only 35 minutes to change flight and there are too many shops and too little amount of signs to find my gate.

Other while seeping and the pilot tells us that we arrive to Madrid, how weird!, he talks in Spanish.

I’ve arrived, all is easy, I know where the underground is, how much it is, the stop where I have to change to another line and in what stop to go out. It’s 12 at night, my street is deserted as usual. They’ve change the business in the corner again. I have no keys, I didn’t know how long would I be away. I call the bell; “Hello. It’s me”.

I still have things to tell you about the trip, some interesting numbers, curiosities, and… maybe another video.

Soon more.

Fernando

During all the trip I thought this would be a sweet and sour moment, like the food. But I’m happy. Happy for having done it, happy for having left home that day with the backpack and for having arrived to China, to Xian and Beijing ten months later, which is what I wanted.

I’m happy for having been able to fulfil my objective, the bitterness of the trip finishing is very small, in one or another way all finishes, and this is a happy ending, like in the horrible Disney movies. All has gone fine, I’ve arrived and I smile. Even though a part of me wants “not to be happy”, doesn’t want the trip to finish, wants to keep being nomad.

As I knew this would be publish later I’m writing this on the plane. I couldn’t writ this a month later.

I was sure that I wouldn’t put a plane picture, how unmening. Once I saw the work of a photographer that was a retired Iberia pilot. He had carried his camera during his service years as pilot. Those were truly spectacular pictures.

In the morning I record the last images of the Beijing video so I haven’t had time to have breakfast so I’ve bought something in a smoky stall that threw a good smell while I was recording. It appears in the minute 1;48. It’s good, like a sandwich with meat and soya seeds that fall in every bite. I was hoping to fry by the terminal they built for the Olympics but I’m not lucky.

I love airports, searching for my fight reading quickly the screen and finding it surrounded by other attractive names, seeing people with their bags searching their destinations. I’m sensitive, if I see somebody sad and overwhelmed sad I feel pity and if I see someone happy I euphoric.

But if I like airports , I like planes even more. For me, a plane is a “non temporal window” in which there’s nothing you can do. Before a trip I always have thousand things to do and the plane is a place to relax in which I hardly ever do anything useful. Normally I fall asleep before taking off, when the big airplane moves slowly and clumsy to the runaway. By the time I’m awake, there are times I’ve been hours on the air.

If I’d flight direct I’d had flown by most of my route, of my silk road. Even it’s not the exact terrain I’ve gone by, I look down, I’m crossing Eurasia in the opposite way, gaining the seven hours I had lost the clock. I think in all the things I’ve done, in all the people I’ve talk to, on the times that I’ve sweat and silver, en all the things that have happened to me… I smile.

Madrid awaits me. This was one year ago, the day before departuring.

Coming back would be harder if my time would have finished, something would have happened back home or money had finished. It would have been even harder if I had had to come back after four months of travelling, that would have been horrible! The reason of coming back is strong and appealing. I’ve got a civil servant job organizing the town hall bill in my hometown… OK, I’m joking… The reason is better, it’s a live reason full of hope. In a few days I’m going to(I was going to) become an uncle. The rest of China can wait, I can’t miss this.

My vegetative plane state get’s altered by my accumulated memories during the trip. The images get amounted in my brain, moreover I’m hearing Radiohead and Thom Yorke’s voice messes my thoughts, the music puts them back in order, I don’t know how this will en up. Is like doing the trip in fast speed. One of my favourites sons sounds; “Idioteque”.

We make a stop in Moscow. The pilot announces that it’s -22 degrees. They put us the stairs instead of the finger and I have my coat in the luggage for not carrying it. I had always wanted to come to Moscow, but I have only 35 minutes to change flight and there are too many shops and too little amount of signs to find my gate.

Other while seeping and the pilot tells us that we arrive to Madrid, how weird!, he talks in Spanish.

How different this is from what I´ve seen the last months!

I’ve arrived, all is easy, I know where the underground is, how much it is, the stop where I have to change to another line and in what stop to go out. It’s 12 at night, my street is deserted as usual. They’ve change the business in the corner again. I have no keys, I didn’t know how long would I be away. I call the bell; “Hello. It’s me”.

I still have things to tell you about the trip, some interesting numbers, curiosities, and… maybe another video.

I imagined beijing as an ant nest of incessant movement, millions of people stuffing everything day and night. I imagined lines for the nine million bicicles, smoky food stalls and constants trafic jams. And i wanted to make a video of it.

Beijing dissapointed me in that part, I haven’t find it such an ant nest, there were not that many people in the street neither so many cars, neither bicicles, but still the vide has became very good, very experimental. Let’s see if you like the style.